Police say home invasion robbery like that in Northeast Portland rare, but should be a 'wake-up call'

View full sizeMotoya Nakamura/The OregonianNeighbors and friends have left cards and notes for the 6-year-old girl who was injured earlier this week during a home-invasion burglary in Northeast Portland. The girl had to be hospitalized, but is now back with her parents.

Before dawn Tuesday, Charlotte Bliss awakened to the sound of her dog growling. Alarmed, she woke her husband, Dominic Castillo. Someone, she said, was in the hallway outside their bedroom.

Castillo stepped into the hall, where he saw a stranger. The man was standing near the bedroom of their 6-year-old daughter, Tessa.

Then the intruder struck. He hit Castillo in the face with a large cast-iron skillet he had grabbed from the family's kitchen. The two begin to fight, struggling with each other as they went down the stairs.

Eventually, Castillo was able to break free and grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the intruder repeatedly.

The intruder ran off. Police noticed a strange car parked on the wrong side of the street in front of the couple's house.

Hours later, Bliss and Castillo realized the man had also apparently attacked Tessa, striking her with the skillet. She suffered a skull fracture and was treated and released from the hospital. Tessa, who is expected to make a full recovery, has no recollection of the assault.

The brazen -- and rare -- home invasion stunned the leafy, well-manicured Northeast Portland neighborhood of Beaumont-Wilshire, where neighbors say crime is low and residents look out for one another. Said one resident, Nancy S. Williams, who lives near Bliss and Castillo, "I think this has made us all more aware that things like this happen."

Michael J. Parker, a 26-year-old Portlander who shot and killed a man as a teenager, is accused of breaking into Bliss and Castillo's home that morning. The motive appears to be burglary, though authorities remain puzzled why the intruder would hurt the couple's sleeping child.

Bliss and Castillo have not spoken publicly since the incident. Castillo is a member of local indie band

, which postponed its upcoming dates in Portland and Seattle, according to the band's Facebook page.

Police say the house appears to have been randomly targeted. Sgt. Pete Simpson, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, said the incident is isolated and extremely rare.

"We do see home invasions, but typically they are drug related," he said. In such cases, "there is a criminal activity at the house, which brings other criminals there. They know there is money or drugs at the house and they are coming to steal.

"This is not that case," Simpson said. "This is an absolute anomaly." He couldn't recall another similar case in recent memory.

Simpson also said the incident is a "wake-up call" to homeowners to take basic security measures, including trimming tall hedges, adding or improving exterior lighting and making sure window locks are working.

---

The first hint that something might be amiss that evening came about midnight, when a woman who lives a few blocks from Bliss and Castillo on Northeast Siskiyou Street spotted a man driving around the neighborhood.

The man stared directly at the woman, who was smoking a cigarette on her porch. She was concerned enough to return to her house. Later, she told authorities that the car she had seen was the same one left in front of the home and later linked to Parker.

View full sizeBenjamin Brink/The OregonianInvestigators check the scene outside a home in the 4300 block of Northeast Siskiyou Street in Portland on Tuesday, hours after a home invasion at the residence. The man accused in the crime, Michael Parker, was stabbed several times during a struggle with resident Dominic Castillo.

About three hours later, an intruder first attempted to break into the couple's garage, shattering a window and leaving behind a hammer. He then broke a first-floor closet window and climbed into the house.

Bliss made her call to 9-1-1 at 3:18 a.m. Officers arrived a short time later and searched the area with a dog. They found the car but little else.

Then, at 6:43 p.m., the Police Bureau's Special Emergency Reaction Team was activated to respond to an apartment in the 1500 block of North Ainsworth Street, a little less than five miles from where the home invasion took place.

Parker was inside and did not want to come out. But after about two hours of negotiations and after his pastor arrived on the scene, Parker surrendered peacefully.

Until a couple of months ago, Parker had been living in a small transitional housing program for men that is affiliated with the Church of the True Vine on Northeast Killingsworth Street. Parker had lived in the facility for about 18 months before moving in with a woman, said church pastor Dwight Minnieweather.

Minnieweather said Parker was homeless when he met him. He described Parker as "standoffish and distant" but nonviolent. He did not appear to have drug or alcohol problems, and he attended weekly Bible study meetings and Sunday church services. Minnieweather said Parker once confided that he had a mental health problem. When he first arrived, Parker was seeing a Multnomah County caseworker but those visits ended after several months, Minnieweather said.

At age 14, Parker pleaded no contest to first-degree manslaughter in the Jan. 16, 1999, fatal shooting of Markus Anthony Harris, 20, and the wounding of Laquandre L. Taylor, then 19. Taylor was shot in the neck.

Parker was sentenced to spend until April 2006 in custody.

When he got out, he took classes at Oregon State University. OSU spokesman Dave Stauth said Parker is listed as a student of the College of Liberal Arts during the 2005-06 academic year.

But he apparently ran into financial trouble and dropped out. Parker told Minnieweather, however, that he planned to resume classes on June 20.

Minnieweather said he had last spoken with Parker a couple of weeks ago when Parker stopped by to chat.

Then, on Tuesday night, Minnieweather got a call that Parker was in trouble with police and wanted to see Minnieweather. So the pastor headed to an apartment building on North Ainsworth Street, where he learned Parker was the suspect in the early morning home invasion.

Parker feared he would be killed by police and had asked for Minnieweather. After seeing his pastor had arrived, Parker gave up peacefully.

Minnieweather was stunned to learn Parker was accused of breaking into a home and attacking the homeowner.

"It's not making any sense to me," Minnieweather said. "What went wrong?"

---

Friday morning, at the Tudor-style home where Bliss and Castillo live with their daughter, a ground-floor window was boarded up - a sign of what went wrong here earlier this week. The family did not appear to have returned home, but a maple tree on the side of the house was decorated with tributes to Tessa.

Small fairy dolls, a sparkly crown and cards addressed to the girl adorn the tree.